d countries in the UN subregion but universally included in the term "West Asia".

Western Asia (also known as West Asia, Southwestern Asia or Southwest Asia) is a geographic concept sometimes used to denote the westernmost portion of Asia, significantly overlapping with the definitions of Middle East or the Near East. At present, the term is primarily used by the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD), which classifies Western Asia as one of its geographic subdivisions. UNSD clarifies that its concept of Western Asia is not definitive, and that the "assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is merely for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories."[1] In fact, several countries listed under the so-called Western Asia are generally considered to be part of Europe, such as Cyprus, a member of the European Union.

The UN itself is not consistent with its country classifications and various UN elements use different geographic definitions for their own convenience. For instance, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization defines West Asia as encompassing Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia, Oman, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, but excluding Cyprus and Georgia.[2] Similarly, UNESCO classifies Cyprus, Georgia, and several other countries under its Europe/North America region.[3]

The term is used pragmatically and has no "correct" or generally agreed-upon definition. The National Geographic Style Manual include the nations of Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Oman, and Yemen as part of West Asia.[5] As a further example, Maddison, The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003) includes all nations comprising Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Jordan, West Bank/Gaza, and Saudi Arabia, but not the countries of the South Caucasus, which figure in a separate category "former USSR", or Israel.[6] The United Nations Industrial Development Organization includes Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia, Oman, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan when listing the nations of the West Asia region, and leaves Turkey, Cyprus and Georgia out.[7] The UNSD leaves out Iran but includes all other commonly West Asian listed nations.

United Nations

The single most common citation for the term Western Asia is the United Nations Statistical Division, which classifies Western Asia as one of its geographic subdivisions. The UN does not necessarily view the term as scientific or geographic and states that "assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is merely for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories."[8] The countries and territories in the UNSD subregion of Western Asia,[9] are as follows: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, State of Palestine, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The UN itself is not consistent with its country classifications and various UN elements use different definitions for their own convenience. For instance, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization defines West Asia as encompassing Azerbaijan, Iran, Armenia, Oman, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, but excluding Cyprus and Georgia.[10] Similarly, UNESCO classifies Cyprus, Georgia, and several other countries under its Europe/North America region.[11]

History

"Western Asia" was in use as a geographical term in the early 19th century, even before "Near East" became current as a geopolitical concept.[12] In the context of the history of classical antiquity, "Western Asia" could mean the part of Asia known in classical antiquity, as opposed to the reaches of "interior Asia", i.e. Scythia, and "Eastern Asia" the easternmost reaches of geographical knowledge in classical authors, i.e. Transoxania and India.[13] In the 20th century, "Western Asia" was used to denote a rough geographical era in the fields of archaeology and ancient history, especially as a shorthand for "the Fertile Crescent excluding Ancient Egypt" for the purposes of comparing the early civilizations of Egypt and the former.[14]

There are two wind phenomena in Western Asia: the sharqi and the shamal. The sharqi (or sharki) is a wind that comes from the south and southeast. It is seasonal, lasting from April to early June, and comes again between late September and November. The winds are dry and dusty, with occasional gusts up to 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour) and often kick up violent sand and dust storms that can carry sand a few thousand meters high, and can close down airports for short periods of time. These winds can last for a full day at the beginning and end of the season, and for several days during the middle of the season. The shamal is a summer northwesterly wind blowing over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states (including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), often strong during the day, but decreasing at night. This weather effect occurs anywhere from once to several times a year.[17]

Water resources

Several major aquifers provide water to large portions of Western Asia. In Saudi Arabia, two large aquifers of Palaeozoic and Triassic origins are located beneath the Jabal Tuwayq mountains and areas west to the Red Sea.[22]Cretaceous and Eocene-origin aquifers are located beneath large portions of central and eastern Saudi Arabia, including Wasia and Biyadh which contain amounts of both fresh water and saline water.[22] Flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation, covering nearly 90,000 km² across Western Asia for agriculture.[23]

Demographics

The population of Western Asia was estimated at 272 million as of 2008, projected to reach 370 million by 2030 by Maddison (2007; the estimate excludes the Caucasus and Cyprus). This corresponds to an annual growth rate of 1.4% (or a doubling time of 50 years), well above the world average of 0.9% (doubling time 75 years). The population of Western Asia is estimated at about 4% of world population, up from about 39 million at the beginning of the 20th century, or about 2% of world population at the time.[24]

The most populous countries in the region are Turkey and Iran and, each with around 75 million people, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia with around 32 million people each.

The dominance of Arabic and Turkish is the result of the medieval Arab and Turkic invasions which displaced the formerly dominant Aramaic and Hebrew in the Levant, and Greek in Anatolia, although Hebrew is once again the dominant language in Israel, and Aramaic and Greek both remain present in their respective territories as small minority languages.

Economy

The economy of Western Asia is diverse and the region experiences high economic growth. Turkey has the largest economy in the region, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Petroleum is the major industry in the regional economy, as more than half of the world's oil reserves and around 40 percent of the world's natural gasreserves are located in the region.

↑e.g. Petrus Van Der Meer, The Chronology of Ancient Western Asia and Egypt, 1955. Karl W. Butzer, Physical Conditions in Eastern Europe, Western Asia and Egypt Before the Period of Agricultural and Urban Settlement, 1965.